Saturday, November 23, 2013

Quick Thoughts On The Brian McCann Signing

Here's a bit of broken news for you.  This just came in from the Twitter account of the always-dependable Ken Rosenthal:

That's right, Mets fans.  Former Braves catcher Brian McCann is getting $17 million per season in a deal that could see him getting a total of $100 million from the Yankees through 2019.  Need I remind you, McCann will be 30 before Opening Day.  He's also a catcher.  And he's also been basically a singles hitter with an occasional homer thrown in to mix things up.  Want proof?

McCann has hit 20+ homers seven times in his career.  However, he's still looking for his first 25-HR campaign.  Despite the fact that a home run guarantees a run scored and at least one run batted in, McCann's runs have gone down every year since 2008 and his RBI total has decreased each year since 2009.  McCann's extra-base hits have also decreased annually since 2008, as have his total hits.


Year
Runs Scored
Runs Batted In
Extra-Base Hits
Total Hits
2008
68
87
66
153
2009
63
94
57
137
2010
63
77
46
129
2011
51
71
43
126
2012
44
67
34
101
2013
43
57
33
91


To put that into perspective, please note that in the 2012 and 2013 campaigns, Lucas Duda scored a total of 85 runs, drove in 90, collected 61 extra-base hits and pounded out 167 total hits.  (McCann had 87, 124, 67 and 192, respectively.)  And for those of you saying "but McCann's a catcher and gets less playing time", Duda had 719 at-bats in the majors between the two seasons, while McCann had 795.  Therefore, the Yankees just paid $85 million (and perhaps up to $100 million) to a player whose current offensive production isn't that far off from what Lucas Duda does at the plate for the Mets.

But hey, at least the Yankees know that if someone styles after hitting a home run off one of their own, Brian McCann will be there to block the plate as that hitter rounds third.  I guess that part of his game is priceless.

Photo by Scott Cunningham/Getty Images

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